Meeting with the George Washington University and the Directorate of Sustainable Tourism

On Thursday January 18, 2018 Mrs. Seleni Matus, Executive Director of the International Institute of Tourism Studies at The George Washington University (GWU) met with H.E. Dr. June Soomer, ACS Secretary General and Ms. Tanya Amaya, Advisor of the Directorate of Sustainable Tourism. The overall objective of the meeting was to report on the progress obtained during the joint collaboration between the ACS and GWU, as well as members of the Sustainable Tourism Zone of the Greater Caribbean (STZC) Steering Committee which also consists of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) to produce a report that reflects the health of Caribbean tourism destinations based on third-party assessments of sustainability. Final report data for the Pilot Phase will be aligned around a singular scoring system and based on indicators that were categorized into five main themes as outlined by the UNWTO International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development’s publication. The report includes insights and trends about destination sustainability and the adoption of internationally recognized sustainability criteria. The meeting concluded with both organizations agreeing to strengthen their collaboration as they continue to work together on conducting future research that will continue to provide National Tourism Authorities and Key Stakeholders with information that will result in a deeper knowledge of the challenges, trends, benefit and importance of developing tourist destinations with a sustainable approach. The aforementioned institutions have agreed to meet in order to revise their sustainability programmes and work on a joint grant proposal to expand the scale and scope of the research and generate opportunities for tourist destinations committed to pursue a high level of sustainably.